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On 29 May 2008, at 9:43 PM, Lu Abel wrote:

> French was sort of the Bowditch of the drafting world.
>
> Just pulled two copies from my bookshelf.   One dated 1924 and once
> owned by my long-dead father-in-law who spent 49 years working as a
> draftsman for General Electric before retiring in 1962.   The other
> is the 1937 edition and was owned by my father.   I'm pretty sure I
> had to buy my own copy, either for the four years of drafting I took
> at a technical high school or for my freshman drafting class on my
> way to becoming an engineer.   So there's likely also a late 1950s
> edition somewhere in a box of books.

My father was a mechanical engineering student in the mid 1950s and he
had a 1954 edition of French.  I used to love looking through it when
I was young.  It was an excellent text, and got me to take a drafting
class in Junior High school.

So, how many of our children are grabbing our K&R "The C Programming
Language" books, or our Bowditch volumes, or any other book that was
influential upon us, to the end that they are inspired to become
serious about science and engineering? Most flee from anything
difficult these days, and that is worrisome.

I think it is because most engineering and science is harder to
assimilate than video games.  Computer and video games, or just
watching movies and videos -- these are going to become the ruin of
our world unless our children grow up to be remote control fighter
pilots for a huge battle in the future and they have accidentally
learned great game and war skills from it all...

I know that European children have a great edge on American children,
as they are far more interested in serious math and science than we are.

Dan






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